By Pepper Parr
July 19th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
The water needed a place to go – catch basins might have been blogged. Some homes were badly damaged.
Visuals sent to us by an Aldershot resident show the extent of the flooding in his neighbourhood.
The pictures were taken by Craig Cosby and are of the flood at the Willowbrook and Dorset intersection; going up Willowbrook along the creek to Enfield.
Cosby said: “I think nine home ended up flooded, some up into the main floor.
Climate Change is just one of the many phrases we use to justify doing absolutely nothing about anything anymore, the design of the storm system was more than adequate to handle the 100mm rainstorm, the flooding wasn’t biblical, and most of the city was fine, a culvert was plugged, maintenance to the system was seriously lacking, the posts for help on Facebook were for sump pump failures, drains covered by flooring, storm drains plugged with debris, these are routine homeowner jobs that should be done, check your topography have you filled in engineered slopes with landscaping.
Please direct me to the storm system design evidence that you say was more than adequate to handle the 100 mm rainstorm. Also tell us how you rationalize with the evidence. Was this over 24 hours, the 100 year storm, Hurricane Hazel, or other.
Has the City inspected the flood zones for your homeowner behavioral claims? We need facts and data before we buy what you say.
This overall drainage system was built in bits and pieces over a long period, and certainly was not integrated in any demonstrable way so everything was suitable for 100 mm , unless you know of one.
The City should have some guidance and data history.
Tom, problem-solving not only involves statistics it requires a visual component, in a critical situation the visual and the drawing of conclusions are more important than statistical analysis, as in being on a sinking boat, as I’ve stated in a previous comment I received Facebook banners and was experiencing things unfold in real-time, the posts are still up on community blogs for anyone to draw their own conclusions, people are truly amazing and resourceful when under pressure, noted by me were the posts with pictures of help being asked to show up with waders to clear culverts of debris, also individuals reporting they had cleared debris from storm drains, very helpful was the individuals flying drones over disassociated flooded areas for insurance purposes, also vehicles driving into and out of flooded portions of streets, peoples stories about sump pumps, basement drains and window wells, my morning walk to check out culvert bridges in my downtown area.
As for the design criteria of existing infrastructure, I made the assumption that they had to have been engineered to, I read somewhere 200mm 2x the 100-year event, the actual rainfall was 80mm within a specified time period, and the standard for testing is a rain gauge. My initial conclusion was a lack of maintenance and nothing has changed my mind yet.
See below for my post and the link
While having a quick cup of coffee I pulled up one of the many online calculations of design for 100-year events to mitigate flooding by the use of culverts, but I would bet a sizable amount that the Burlington system was more than adequate: A purposeful detour of my daily walk to inspect the southern portion of Ranbo Creek and its bridges told me all I needed to know, ‘Maintenance’ I won’t go into the specifics but the culvert’s banks and beds over time have been reduced by the lack of a preventive maintenance schedule and any of you out there that have ever been involved in any industry knows that P.M. schedules save money over the long run (again this you would either know or not know) throwing money at a problem never works. p.s. and if you have a love of calculating things you can use this link to design your own culvert.
https://engineeringdiscoveries.com/how-to-calculate-the-size-diameter-of-culvert-for-the-100-year-peak-flow/
Can you tell me the name of the creek that runs under all of these homes that are experiencing these floods and also Conrad Court was hit very hard. which is next street over from Willowbrook
Don’t know where Conrad Court is – Rambo Creek West was where the worst damage was.
It is very difficult not to be critical when all staff say is: “the flood was due to climate change”. And, “We followed “Standard Procedures””.
I can’t decide if this is an nothing excuse, or a reason with unstated substance. Are they confessing that we really are living in a changed climate state already (I agree), and that the appropriate weather entailed by that state just hit us, and standard procedures they followed were adequate?
In a changed climate state, standard procedures are not adequate for the extreme events that can be delivered. The new climate state does not reverse itself to what we assumed it was when we developed the standard procedures for weather extreme event probabilities.
It will not go back on the growth mania path we are on, ever accelerating the climate forcing. It is not reversible.
And despite the City official declaration of such a changed climate state emergency some time ago, we were not prepared in the least for the extreme rain/flood event, probably unprecedented, that just happened?
To get elected, we are told by comments here, Mayor Meed Ward promised just such comprehensive plan as part of her campaign platform, covering everything, but it was all paper, and talk. When she became Mayor, it evaporated, and nothing was delivered.
A large portion of the land below the 403, perhaps extending up higher, is a floodplain extending to lower Burlington, and which is the the locale of the floodzone that just happened, and much of Plains road and the MTSA that are slated for much intense development, mainly high rise with needs for underground parking.
All of this land and proposed development is going to need storm water engineering planning, groundwater engineering analysis and management , and general stormwater management analysis. How is the City going to account for the very large cumulative needs and potential impacts of all this together, in the climate state we are in?
Is the City plan to use “Standard Procedure”, like it did here, with failure? Does this mean each application is judged as a stand-alone, using standard procedure? Is there thinking about OP area capacity limits for large development Zones?
The recent flood is in the Plains Rd flood plain. Much development has occurred recently. Much more is to come. Of note is the Jazz, which is right next store to the Willowbrook flood zone, It applied for 6 stories, but was finally approved at 4, primarily because of the nearby creek and a groundwater flow problem, concerning the need to dig space for parking.
What elements of Standard Procedure were applied here, to reduce stories allowed on these grounds? What about the National Homes development construction actively ongoing. There many others these questions apply to.
Of further note, the vacant lot, formerly the site of the Socrates restaurant, directly to the west, is slated to be applied for some residential development plan. This parcel is subject to similar stormwater conditions as Jazz, and was flooded during the present flood.
Our Council has not really changed at all, and despite urgent words, just assumed away the changing climate. We did the same thing for the 2014 rain/flood, and the city didn’t learn anything then, and nothing changed.
Penny outlines the reality for residents that just got clobbered with many aspects of the impacts on their houses with floods of stormwater and or mixed sanitary sewer /storm water and filled basements and other impacts, including the very large immediate repair costs, and the unknown economic facing residents in the the value of their properties at resale, and flood insurance cost and availability.
Joe asks about the City exposure to costs. Dooes City self insure, and tax payer
it seems the Council thinks it can just spend its way out and just carry on the growth mania – green house gas spewing full speed ahead damn the climate and weather.
Councilor Sharman threw out that: “it only happens once in 100 years”, as a bad excuse, an incorrect rationalization, to avoid blame for some refusal of an expenditure on prevention concerning the 2014 flood. This is just useless numbers, to do nothing. It trivializes what just happened, to residents and in 2014.
The staff are the ones who design and implement the storm water management planning practices, and engineering structures practices. They badly need to update their practices totally for a climate change relevant procedures regime. I suggest that they organize some process or organized working group including the qualified public, to explore how this might be done.
context for
The use of Standard Procedures is not going to work as a general procedure. Let’s get going on a climate relevant practice.
Tom not only quickly evaporate her promises, she changed Procedure Byaws and supported taxpayers being banned from getting to speak at the lectern with absolutely no authority to do so. She called the cops in and got charges laid ( later dropped as no foundation ) on business owner who criticised her. She also has made a great job of evaporating collected taxes on uunnecessary projects, gave $2 mill of our reserve funds for a yacht club marina, and oh so much more.
Tom,
Many creeks around the MTSA. Hidden Valley for example, how many smaller creeks flow into there from Waterdown road. This was all flooded and no mention of this from Ward 1.
GREAT JOB MAYOR WHILE YOUR ON YOUR JAPANESE VACATION COSTING TAXPAYERS $20,000 REMIND YOURSELF THAT SOME OF US ARE RUINED
I listened to the Special Council Meeting and all I heard were excuses from staff as to why they didn’t think that their lack of oversight on the removal of debris etc was really responsible because they “were following Standard procedures”, and this flood was due to climate change.
Once a home has had major flood damage and the homeowner has used their insurance coverage to pay for the restoration of their home it is impossible to get this coverage again?
What happens when they go to sell their home? I would think that a “flood event” ( no longer is this simply a flood it is now an event – did you notice that we no longer have snow storms we have snow events?) would have to be disclosed when selling their home. Would the potential buyer be able to get flood insurance?
The funding being provided by the 407, Halton Region, and the City while nice to receive will do little to pay for the cost of restoration if one does not have flood insurance as part of their homeowners insurance policy.
The city in its “policies” contributed greatly to the present problem. They learned nothing from the previous floods. They made some structural changes but in the end the simplest part that was to maintain the areas in question and keep the debris away was not done properly.
Penny,
I totally agree with you. I watched the Special Council meeting yesterday and our City Council was in Damage control for themselves, Staff included.
Mayor Meed Ward was completely self serving. Everytime the mention of the Flooding came up, she was very quick to blame it on others. Our Mayor commissioned a report on “Flood Management” in July of 2018 for her first Mayoral Campaign in 2018 and vowed she would fix the infrastructure so “Flooding” didn’t happen again. And now, 7 years later, after she received that “Flood Management Report” nothing has been done to rectify anything!!!
But this Mayor and Council have No problem spending our Tax Dollars on their numerous Vanity Projects; Love your Neighbour Program; Free Money to numerous Groups on a yearly basis who can and should support themselves, i.e. Burlington Green is one example; etc. etc.
Stop the “Civic Square Renewal Project” now and put that money to infrastructure
Also, we do not need a “Referendum” prior to the October 2026 Municipal Election to decide if Burlington Residents will pay more Tax money to fix our Infrastructure as Shawna Stolte, Ward 4 has suggested. What we need is a City Council who spends our Tax Dollars on what we Need to be done!! And to be fiscally responsible moving forward with our Property Tax Dollars.
Floods, like the one in 2014 are caused by an excess of rain within a given period of time. The amount of rain to be expected in this case was all over the news. Is Climate Change a buzz word or a warning to do things differently? The money spent on buying and operating electric buses and vehicles, versus flood mitigation in this case demonstrates misplaced priorities and a council that does not get it.
I don’t really know what other word to use, but it’s not just a buzz word. But you are on the money when you say it’s a warning to do things differently.
The present climate state is not the state of 100 years ago. What we observed and measured 100 years ago is not representative for what we observe and measure in the present.
The climate state today is greenhouse gas accelerated from 100 years ago. Today, we have to consider what the influence of that forcing means in the weather variance we could see today
You can see climate science diagrams and data, showing the average increase in greenhouse gas forcing increase in atmosphere, and and increasing average amount and variance in heat and water in the atmosphere as a predominant features affecting the weather. This combination of increased heat and water can be deadly weather affecting large land masses.
Did the recent record early bird Hurricane Beryl not push a lot of heat and water to reach us, and contribute to our weather? Like you said Joe, it was all over the News for days, and the observations and predictions we were getting, even as it arrived here, was all over the place with inherent uncertainty in all the things of interest.
So again, I agree in the strongest terms that it is certainly a warning to do things differently, in the very least. Better yet, do it right now, while we have more time – we are already late.
Exactly right on the money, ultimately it is the CEO who’s responsible for the operation aspect of the corporation it is the Directors’ job to protect the Corporation as you would a child. Everyone else is manageable either in, out or moved; It is my belief this corporation has been woefully mismanaged for years, I’m looking at this new CEO and his record at RBG and his move to reorganize the departmental structures to see where that problem lies.
Here is a question. Given the reported lapses in the regular inspection and removal of debris from grates and dumping tree cuttings etc into our waterways, does COB have any financial loss exposure?
If the insurance companies or home owners are following this sad tale of incompetence as reported by the Gazette. they may be speed dialing their lawyers as we read.